Eve of Destruction draws near

Robin YasinSac- Gillespie Local Tracks

Published 12:46 am, Thursday, June 23, 2011

Every year promoter Howard Commander waits for school to let out and then he unleashes one of his most popular events of the season at Lebanon Valley Speedway -- the Eve of Destruction set for Tuesday.

"It is certainly one of our marquee events of the season," said track general manager Lyle DeVore.

"I think it is really popular because there is nothing like it, you can't find entertainment like this at another venue because it's a kind of "off-the-wall" entertainment that you don't see anywhere else."

The schedule for the event includes: a roll-over contest, school bus races, a hood and trunk race, a reverse race, trailer races, a demolition derby and this year, a Figure-8 race has been added to the mix.

This type of format was started in the Midwest," DeVore said. "We revamped it and took it more away from the racing aspect of it and made it more of an entertainment-type show."

Along with the "bizarre" events the speedway will also bring two of their weekly divisions in on the action -- the Purestocks and 4 Cylinders.

And for more than a decade, the folks from Thrill-Master Productions will be on-hand for the night's finale, but DeVore won't reveal this year's stunt.

In a past event they put themselves in the Guinness Book of World Records with a jump they made with a garbage truck.

"All I can say is it's something you definitely don't want to miss, it will be a first at Lebanon Valley Speedway," DeVore said.

This event is also one of the messiest.

"It's a lot of work because the clean-up details so much," DeVore said. "There is debris all over the track that needs to be picked up, there are ramps that need to be dismantled, a lot goes into making this event a success. And we only have a few days to do it because we open up for our regular racing event on Saturday. But it is definitely worth it -- it's a crowd pleaser."

DeVore is just happy to see some intervals of sun. This season the Saturday night cards at area speedways have fallen victim to too much rain.

"We've barely gotten 50 percent of our shows in this season," DeVore said. "It's been cold or rainy, but when we had good weather we had great crowds so we have to thank everybody for supporting us -- you just can't beat Mother Nature."

Hearn the Host

Modified sensation Brett Hearn hosted a DIRTcar Modified Series event on Tuesday at Orange County Fair Speedway in Middletown. It was Hearn's third year of hosting the tour event -- The Big Show II.

After securing the race lead from his good friend Tim Fuller on lap 41, Billy Decker led the remainder of the 100-lap event to secure his second consecutive series win. The win was worth $6,000.